Shinji, Master of the Cards
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: What if Shinji met up with a sorcerer that would one day see the potential in him to become a sorcerer, and what if Shinji grew up better because of this encounter? Also, what if, before he left to Tokyo-3, the sorcerer gave him some cards that would help him? What if these cards were as alive as he or anyone else were?
1. Shinji, Master of the Cards

Creation began on 01-04-16

Creation ended on 01-04-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji, Master of the Cards

A/N: I spoke with a friend that goes by the name of Aggression25, and he was really upset about this disrespect he was getting on one of the Wikis, so I wrote this for him. It's also one of the only crossovers that's in English.

He saw him by the train tracks as the man walked away, leaving the boy as he cried for him not to leave him. That's when he decided to make himself known.

"Excuse me, young man," he greeted the little boy. "What's the matter?"

"Daddy doesn't want me, anymore," the little boy explained, and the man, dressed in a blue business suit with round spectacles, looked up as the other man, the boy's father, was no longer there.

"What is your name?" He asked him, holding out a small lollipop.

"Shinji Ikari," the boy addressed himself, accepting the lollipop.

"Would you care to come with me?" The man offered. "I'm in need of a young companion."

"You…you won't leave me?" Shinji asked him.

"Not unless you want me to, I won't."

Shinji nodded and left the station with him.

"By the way, my name is Clow Reed."

"That's a funny name."

"So I've been told, many times over."

"I like it."

"Thank you."

-x-

Almost a decade went by since that fateful day. But it was something Shinji was glad for as time went by. A lot had transpired since meeting Clow Reed, who he found out was some sort of sorcerer (he almost didn't believe in magic until he saw what the man was capable of on a small scale), and that he was trying to gather up other sorcerers that survived Second Impact to help restore the planet. It wasn't until after he turned eleven that Shinji became his apprentice, as he unintentionally did something that there weren't others that were capable of doing a week before his birthday: He had stumbled onto his most sacred book…and broke its unbreakable seal.

" _No one besides me is capable of such a feat, as it requires a lot of magical potential,"_ Clow Reed had told him, finding that his book had been resealed quickly by Shinji. _"This can only mean that you have some potential to be a great sorcerer one day."_

 _And that was three years ago,_ thought Shinji, dressed in the school uniform of the student body that attended the Tomoeda Middle School, which was the same as the uniform used by the students at the elementary school, as he walked past a payphone in the city he stepped into after getting off the train, paying it no mind. _He said each of my lessons would help me when I meet that Gendo. Still can't believe that I still need more training before I can begin seeing into the future, though._

During his apprenticeship under Clow Reed, he had learned to affect probability, limited levitation, temporary concealment from the senses of those around him, and even managed to become a clairvoyant before he received his letter from Gendo, instructing him to come to Tokyo-3. Before he left Tomoeda, Clow had given Shinji a book similar to the one he had accidentally opened, and found that it contained several cards similar to the ones he saw in the other book, but their fronts were all blank, which indicated one thing for Shinji: This was another test for him.

 _Clow certainly enjoys testing people,_ he thought, sitting down on some steps and looking at the photograph of this woman that was supposed to come pick him up. _Is this a coincidence or simply an inevitability that transpires?_

He looked away from the photograph of this Misato Katsuragi…and saw a girl that wasn't really there on the streets in front of him. She looked around his age, dressed in a different uniform from the ones he had seen the girls at Tomoeda wear, with pale-blue, page boy hair and red eyes. He blinked…and then she was gone.

Screech! The sound of tires running on the pavement was heard, and Shinji saw a blue Renault come his way, stopping in front of him.

"Road raider!" He called the driver, and they got out and stood in front of him.

"Hello," the woman from the photograph greeted him. "I finally found you."

Shinji stood up and merely bowed his head to her.

"If you're going to dash me back to Gendo, please say so," he told her. "I may be safer riding a bike."

-x-

Nearly an hour later was something Shinji regretted being unable to foresee. He understood how Clow felt when the Second Impact occurred and was unable to stop it. A creature that Ms. Katsuragi referred to as an Angel (maybe a big mistake by someone) was attacked by the military to no effort in stopping it, and then a large bomb was used to try and eliminate it. All of this, unfortunately, left Shinji rather disgusted to be around people with violent intentions on their minds and a desire to spill blood onto the ground.

"Oh, did you get a I.D. card from your father?" Misato asked him as she drove the car through a tunnel.

"Yeah, hold on," he responded, reaching into his gray knapsack and pulling out the envelop the letter came in. "His letter was dull, as he didn't elaborate on why he wanted to see me."

"You don't get along with your father, do you?" She asked him.

"Please, don't call him that."

"Huh?"

"Don't call him my father. That's not what he is."

Misato found speaking to Shinji to be unlike what she had expected it to be. He seemed distant and not very social, and yet he showed signs of a lot of anger. She suspected that he might've had no clue as to what was even going on here.

-x-

"…Fuyutsuki," went Gendo to the Sub-Commander as he left the Central Dogma bridge, "take care of things for me."

"His first reunion with his son in almost a decade," the elder sighed.

-x-

"…Is this him?" Ritsuko Akagi, a faux-blond woman, asked Misato, looking at Shinji, who looked back at her with a judgmental expression.

"Uh, yes," Misato answered. "According to the Marduk Institute, he's the Third Child."

"Perhaps you can explain to me more than she couldn't," Shinji expressed, which had Ritsuko take a step back; it shocked her to hear him speak like that. "Just why the Hell did Gendo want to see me?"

"Uh, right," she responded, and then led them down the hall.

"He's very direct," went Misato to Ritsuko.

In his knapsack, one of the cards in his book started to glow.

To be continued…

A/N: This is the only crossover in English!


	2. The Guard and the Warrior

Creation began on 01-04-16

Creation ended on 01-10-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji, Master of the Cards: The Guard and the Warrior

He really hated Gendo. There was no denying that, and a decade of separation didn't do anything to build any measure of reconciliation between them. Not that Gendo wanted any sort of relationship with his son. But Shinji was willing to put his hatred of him aside for the time being to deal with this Angel before he made his choice to leave and go back to Tomoeda.

So here he was now, inside Evangelion Unit-01, about to go up against the Third Angel. The sooner he took care of this matter, the better.

"Shinji," he heard Ritsuko's voice through the intercom, "I want you try walking for now."

 _There's no need for trying when there's simply doing,_ he thought, willing the Eva to lift its right leg up and bring it down again. _And here we go._

The Eva walked over to the Angel…and then punched it right in its secondary face, sending it staggering backwards.

-x-

"Incredible," Misato expressed, seeing the Eva handle the Angel; the fact that Shinji managed to get synchronization ratio of at least one-hundred percent was beyond staggering.

On the screens, the Eva had managed to send the Angel out of the city limits and over towards the hills. Unfortunately, the Eva couldn't progress any further out of the city itself due to the limited length of the power cable behind it.

This gave the Angel the opportunity to fire its energy beams against the Eva, knocking it down.

-x-

 _You have got to be kidding me,_ thought Shinji, trying to get the Eva to move, but the controls were frozen. _Was this thing even guaranteed to work?!_

Looking up, he saw the Angel reenter the city limits and grab the Eva by its head.

"Urgh!" He grunted, feeling an invisible force grab his head. "Spirit of Merlin, be merciful upon me."

BASH! The Angel started bashing the Eva's head, causing Shinji to feel intense pain.

Until…

PIERCE! The Angel's energy spike went right through the Eva's left eye and out the back of its head, sending it falling backwards onto the ground, spurting blood into the air.

-x-

"…Abort the operation!" Misato ordered. "Eject the Entry Plug!"

"We can't!" Maya Ibuki responded. "We've lost all contact with the Eva!"

-x-

Within the plug, Shinji was split between agony and some sort of out-of-body experience that he only ever experienced once when he made the choice to use of of Clow's cards to demonstrate his ability to summon spiritual bodies.

 _Clow… Clow…_ He thought.

He saw two glowing spheres appear in front of him, and they changed to assume two forms that were unique. On his left was a woman bathed in golden light, wielding a large shield while the other form on his right assumed a male form dressed like an armored samurai bathed in the same glow.

"We will protect you," the woman uttered, sounding welcoming.

-x-

Outside of Unit-01, as the Angel was approaching it, the woman that held the shield appeared in front of the Eva, as massive as they were, using her shield to force the Angel back.

The other glowing being, the samurai, appeared and disappeared inside of the Eva, which then got back up and assumed a defensive stance.

-x-

"…The Eva has reactivated?" A woman gasped.

"What the Hell's going on?" Misato questioned.

"This isn't a berserker," went Ritsuko.

On the screens, the Eva dashed towards the Angel and executed a series of quick jabs at its chest and sides, sending it backwards.

"Incredible," went Hyuga.

"Could the boy be doing this?" Shigeru asked.

"It's not possible," said Maya, checking the synchronization graphs. "His synchronization graphs are still within the negatives."

The Eva then executed a jump-kick against the Angel's face, cracking it and sending the enemy staggering backwards. However, this action caused its umbilical cable to detach from its back.

The Angel fired its energy blasts at the Eva, but the woman that held the shield appeared again and blocked the attack…and the Eva unleashed another jab at the Angel. This time, it was in the core, which made the Angel shriek a death rattle. It fell to its knees as its core lit up.

The woman with the shield jumped onto it and a large barrier formed over them, resulting in a giant flash of blinding light.

As the light dimmed, all that stood in the edge of the city was a large, circular hole where the Angel had attempted a self-destruct, and the Eva itself, kneeling on the ground.

-x-

Shinji awoke in a sparse, white room. The kind you'd find only in a hospital. Getting out of bed, he stood on his feet and sighed.

"I hate hospitals," he uttered.

-x-

"I heard Shinji woke up an hour ago," Ritsuko informed Misato as they were examining the spot where the Angel was defeated.

"How is he doing?" Misato asked her.

"Physically, he's fine, but…"

"But what?"

"Commander Ikari wants to see him. Shinji's unwilling to engage in any further conversation with him after everything that's happened."

"I don't blame him. He did say that he hated him for abandoning him years ago."

"Still, the commander wishes to ascertain whether or not he has any awareness of what happened during the battle."

-x-

 _So far, they've said nothing about either the Angel or the Eva,_ thought Shinji as he flipped through the news channels, finding nothing but gibberish about the weather, bureaucracy, finances and construction projects. _It's just like Clow Reed said. Too many secrets are being kept from the people._

"Hey, there, Shinji," he turned and faced Misato, seeing her trying to be welcoming.

"Hello, Ms. Katsuragi," he greeted her. "May I sign my release form so I can go? I don't really want to stay any longer than I have already."

"You still need to have an audience with your father."

"Please, don't call him that. He's not a father. That's not going to happen. I don't want to speak with him. He's not worth my time, anymore."

"He just wants to know if you were conscious during the battle."

"For what reason? Out of curiosity? Or because he's trying to be a concerned parent? Unless it's the latter, I have nothing to discuss with him, so he can go get wasted for all I care."

-x-

"…That was Katsuragi," Fuyutsuki said to Gendo. "Your son is refusing to see you."

In his office, Gendo sighed and uttered, "Very well, then. Have security escort him over."

-x-

Shinji found his time in the Geo-Front to be even more dull than it was earlier the previous day. He expresses no desire to speak with his father, and then a security detail shows up and forces him to come to Gendo's office.

"There's nothing to discuss, Gendo," he told the man, refusing to address him as his father or by his agency's designation.

"That's not the way I see it," Gendo responded. "As you were in the Eva, you were the only one with any direct involvement in what occurred against the Angel. You shall divulge whatever it is you know."

"There's nothing to divulge…because I was knocked out. The Angel, as you like to call it, which is a complete contrast and disgrace to heavenly beings, kept pounding on my head until I lost consciousness. Whatever happened after that is nothing but a drama of darkness."

"Is that so?"

"Whether you choose to believe or disbelieve is of no importance to me. When you take the cause out of the man, there is no cause for a man."

Behind his orange-tinted glasses, Gendo raised his left eyebrow.

"And you took my cause from me the instant we met in that cage. I see no further reason to even be here, let alone talk with you."

"And if I were to request that you stay to pilot the Eva?"

"I'd say that you're a fool to even think I would consider going through that a second time. And worse, I was told about people like you, people that lie so much that the truth becomes a lie in the process."

"You suspect me of lying?"

"There's no need to suspect when the proof is in your voice. There are truth-tellers and there are liars. Which one are you, exactly?"

Gendo didn't answer him, but instead responded, "You may go now."

Shinji accepted this response and turned to leave the office.

"You disappoint me," he heard Gendo say. "It's likely that we may never meet again after today."

Shinji stopped and turned to face him again.

"For your sake," he expressed, "that's my intention that we never meet again after today."

When he was gone, Gendo pondered on how to rework his scenario. His son was completely unlike what he had intended for him to be. Instead of being a weak-willed boy, he was strong-willed, stubborn and unwavering. And after what happened last night, everything else was likely thrown off course in his scenario.

-x-

"…So that's it, then?" Ritsuko asked Hyuga as they were informed the Third Child was leaving back to where he had been living for over a decade. "He can't be convinced to stay?"

"He really hates his father and won't forgive him for his abandoning of him," Hyuga stated. "They're as different from one another as we're different from animals. Whoever took him in was clearly an influence on him."

"He didn't even even ask about the First Child and if she was alright."

-x-

The train ride back to Tomoeda was very quiet, and Shinji was fine with that. It gave him time to reflect upon what he didn't divulge to Gendo or anyone else at NERV. During his brief moment of agony within Unit-01, he felt the presence of two beings nearest him that were as closer to him than anyone he had been close to on a magical level. One of them had even spoken to him, saying that they would protect him.

He looked down at his knapsack and pulled out the blue book Clow gave him. _The Book of Shinji_ , with a Taoist symbol depicting a dragon and tiger, two of magic's greatest creatures and representations of strength and wisdom, on the front, and a large star surrounded by a sun and full moon on its right and left side, respectively on the back. He opened the seal that kept the hardback bindings together and looked at the cards within. While Clow's cards were gold and red, Shinji's were blue, green and silver…and only two of them now something new to show him.

One card read, _The Guard_ , depicting a woman holding a large shield that was adorned with Asian dragons and she had a serene smile on her face that not even her short, neck-length hair could mask.

The other card read, _The Warrior_ , depicted a samurai preparing his hands by tying bandage-like straps around the wrists with a hat that was similar to the hats worn by the Dai Li from the _Avatar_ cartoon.

 _The Guard and The Warrior?_ He thought, holding them up to his face. _My first cards. Incredible._

-x-

"So, how was Rei today?" Ritsuko asked Gendo, standing in front of the still-damaged Unit-00 that had yet to be repaired from its initial test. "Did you visit her in the hospital?"

"She can work again in thirty days," Gendo told her, "by that time, we'll be ready to reactivate Unit-00 and the Second Child and Unit-02 will have arrived."

"And…what of the Third Child?"

"He will be handled in due time."

But Ritsuko had a feeling that Gendo had other plans for his son when he said that. To know that his son wanted nothing further to do with NERV and the Eva and just return to this Tomoeda place he spent his years in was something that she was certain he was unwilling to let slide. Since this involved Unit-01, a very particular Evangelion that Gendo favored, the whole of NERV was likely to see the Third Child again.

To be continued…

A/N: We got two cards bound to Shinji now. What do you expect to see in the next chapter?


	3. Further Focus

Creation began on 01-10-16

Creation ended on 01-31-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji, Master of the Cards: Further Focus

Tomoeda, Japan was quite a small city that was fortunate enough to survive the devastation of the neighboring Tokyo. It could've been a miniature version of the massive city were it not for its gardens and other greenery portions that made it flower among the ruins of other areas around Japan. But it was the only place, however, that Shinji Ikari could ever call his home. Ever since Clow Reed brought him here, he felt welcomed, wanted and accepted for who he was.

"Hey, Shinji!" A girl a year older than he was and wearing a pink and yellow yukata greeted the young man as he walked down the street. "I heard you that got back from Tokyo-3!"

"That was three days ago, Akane-Chan," Shinji greeted the girl back.

"How was your trip?"

"It was like a jury summons. Nothing about it was remotely good."

"And that man you had to go see?"

"Nothing has changed…except the cause he ripped from my heart."

Akane bowed her head to him and expressed, "At least you still have Reed-Dono."

"Yeah."

When they parted ways on the street, Shinji returned home to Clow Reed's house, an impressive, two-story house in the gated community, as it was a private residence; about a third of Tomoeda was a gated community. As he shut the gate behind him, he looked up at the sakura tree in front of the house as its petals fell off.

"Yeah," he sighed as he caught one of the petals in his left hand. "At least I still have Clow Reed."

Walking up the steps and stopping at the front door, which immediately opened before he could reach into his pocket for his house key.

In front of him was a tall, pale-skinned man that appeared to be in his late-teens, dressed in white robes and had long, whitish-silver hair that was tied in a loose ponytail. His eyes were cat-like, bluish-silver and his left ear had a jeweled piercing on it. If anything, he looked almost sickly and intimidating, but Shinji merely bowed his head to the man.

"Hello, Yue-San," he greeted the most human creation of Clow Reed's.

"Shinji," Yue responded, and stepped aside to allow his master's apprentice inside.

-x-

"…So, he's been living in this place called Tomoeda ever since," went Fuyutsuki to Gendo in his office, having searched on the Third Child's whereabouts ever since he was left alone at a train station over a decade ago. "Apparently, the man that brought him there is also serving as his guardian. A one Clow Reed."

"That is not who was to get him that day," Gendo stated; he knew the teacher that was supposed to get the Third Child, and he knew nobody of that name. "Who is this Clow Reed?"

Going through the file, Fuyutsuki informed him that Clow Reed was a retired teacher that spent much of his life in England.

"Up until Second Impact, he relocated to Tomoeda. Apparently, he originates from Hong Kong, China, but spent most of his life traveling abroad. He's been living in Tomoeda ever since, and has been acting as your son's guardian since they met."

Unfortunately, this left Gendo annoyed that someone he didn't know or entrust with the Third Child's care had been looking after the boy for years. This went against everything he had intended for the boy. Instead of being scrawny or weak-willed, the boy was stubborn and defiant, willful and unruly, incapable or unwilling to be directed by anyone he chose not to follow.

"Where in this Tomoeda does this Clow Reed lives?" He asked Fuyutsuki, who immediately felt that he had something up his sleeves directed towards the man that took care of Shinji.

-x-

"Shinji," Shinji, who was practicing on his shamisen in his room, heard a female voice call out his name, and the young apprentice of Clow Reed looked up at the darkness of his ceiling. "Shinji."

His right eye, uncovered by his hair, widened at the sight of the woman that just appeared in his room, floating in the air. She was quite a sight to behold for him. Purple-skinned, about the size of a basketball, dressed in a blue dress with musical notes, and a conical hat that hid most of her ebony hair.

"You play the shamisen quite beautifully," she told him, and he used his bachi on the strings ago. "It took quite a talent to give me my form, for I am your representation of your passion for music."

"The Music," he uttered, and she levitated down onto his bed, just as a shamisen of her own appeared in her possession, complete with its own bachi. "Shall we?"

"You lead, I follow," she told him, and he continued playing.

She followed in with her own, almost a mirror to his own, but more subtle, more passionate.

From atop his desk, his book opened up and out came ten cards that levitated around the boy and The Music; during the time he had been back, with his magical practices with Clow Reed and independent experiences out in the town, Shinji had accumulated eight more cards that drew strength from him. He could feel their magical presence without even looking at them as they floated around the two. On the front of their forms, each card represented something entirely different that seemed to deal with a different experience the apprentice had to contend with.

 _The Guard_ , _The Warrior_ , _The Quickening_ , _The Cleanse_ , _The Taste_ , _The Conceal_ , _The Obscure_ , _The Soak_ , _The Drowsy_ , and _The Escape_.

When they finished playing, The Music glowed and assumed the form of a card, joining her fellow spiritual embodiments around Shinji. He reached out and took hold of his eleventh card, _The Music_ , which depicted the spirit standing up with her shamisen in front of her.

-x-

"…It can't really be kidnapping if Mr. Reed is acting as his guardian, sir," Gendo was told by a man over the phone in his office. "The man you had intended to look after your son in your absence was discovered to be ill-equipped to deal with the boy."

"That's irrelevant," Gendo spoke up. "He was supposed to be picked up him, not some stranger I have never met."

"We've sent inspectors to his house many times in the past, and there was nothing wrong. Even the boy states that he was fine in Mr. Reed's care, that there wasn't anything wrong. We've also checked with both his schools, and there wasn't a problem. He's even been to a therapist, who reported that he has issues with his childhood abandonment, something that his relationship with Mr. Reed has resolved to a large degree."

"It's still irrelevant!" Gendo shouted; no matter how stable the Third Child's living arrangement with this Clow Reed was, he was against the boy living with him. "I'm ordering that the boy be removed from his custody!"

-x-

"Eleven cards so far," went Clow Reed to Shinji, examining his cards as they levitated in front of him. "You're getting stronger, Shinji. I am proud of your success."

Shinji bowed his head to the ancient and powerful sorcerer, expressing, "Thank you very much, Clow Reed. As always, it is an honor to be taught the art of magic by such a skilled magician."

Then Clow Reed held out something to Shinji in his left hand. It was some sort of key, but not like the one he had in his possession. No, this key was blue and green, with a white tiger in the middle of the base of it, encircled by a blue dragon whose head served as the base for the key piece. In between the two animals was a Taoist symbol; it was in between the tiger's front legs and the dragon's head.

"A key?" Shinji asked him.

"Your key," Clow corrected him. "Just like your cards, it represents the source of your own magic. Unlike how those like me draw strength from the darkness or those of fellow magicians draw strength from nature itself, you draw strength from the delicate balance that exists in the world. Strength of the sun…and of the moon, of the mountains…and of the oceans. Wherever there is a balance, that is where your strength unfolds."

Shinji accepted the key, and it changed in his right hand. It expanded and reached about two-and-a-half meters in length, its base became larger more detailed as the dragon ring had pronounced spines or dorsal plates running along its back. The tiger became more surrealistic and its fangs more pronounced. The key portion of the item vanished, replaced by two spheres of emerald or jade at the base of the shaft. When the transformation completed, Shinji felt a surge of power flow through his nerves, like someone had gone and flushed out his blood with some sort of machine.

"Whoa!" He gasped, using the new staff to support himself, feeling weakened.

"That was quite unexpected," Clow expressed.

"Too much excitement," Shinji sighed.

Behind Clow, his two creations, Yue and Cerberus, the Guardian Beast of the Seal and Yue's opposite as a representation of Clow's western heritage, had seen this entire scene take place, awed at the magical energy unleashed and harnessed.

To be continued…

A/N: Here's the third chapter. For those that can't understand the new cards Shinji has in his possession, they are his version of The (Guard) Shield, The (Warrior) Fight, The (Quickening) Dash, The (Cleanse) Bubbles, The (Taste) Sweet, The (Conceal) Mist, The (Obscure) Cloud, The (Soak) Rain, The (Drowsy) Sleep, The (Escape) Dream and The (Music) Song Clow Cards. And now he has a staff to aid him further in his apprenticeship under Clow Reed. But to what purpose does this lead towards? Anyone?


	4. His Reason

Creation began on 01-31-16

Creation ended on 02-06-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji, Master of the Cards: His Reason

A/N: Why Shinji is Clow Reed's apprentice.

It was during his first day back in Tomoeda, when he encountered The Escape Card, his version of Clow's Dream Card, that Shinji thought once more about why he became Clow's apprentice in the art of magic. Through his minute quest in the realm of the subconscious to capture and harness the power of dreams, he reevaluated his choices and reason behind said choices. It was because of what Clow had shown him of the future that he could perceive due to his unique heritage and the magic behind that heritage. At first, he didn't believe any of what he had been shown, but when he saw his father in the future (in addition to his coldness and indifference towards him, even to the point where he was perfectly willing to sacrifice him to these creatures he had never seen or heard of), there was no denying that his guardian may have done what others would've thought against doing for him.

Clow had changed his life since the day they met at the train station. This also had to mean that their encounter wasn't predestined or an act of the heavens in some goal, but an act of predetermination, a subtle deviation from what Clow had seen of the future; if he saw every detailed event of the unwritten pages of tomorrow, then it also meant that he could take actions to change those events.

 _And he's not the only sorcerer out there,_ thought Shinji in his dreams. _There are dozens of people versed in magic around the world that survived Second Impact, and they are displeased with the present. They want to restore the planet to the way it was before Second Impact, but there's not enough of them to achieve such a feat. It's part of the reason Clow decided to teach me how to be a sorcerer like so many others; if there are more people capable of using magic, then the Earth has a greater chance of being restored. Even he, with all of his power, can't do the impossible on his own._

It was also because Clow had told Shinji that, while the future could be seen in all its glory to him, it was because of them, those that practice sorcery with benevolent intentions, that the future, that it's darkest events, could be changed. Maybe even prevented from ever occurring.

 _No form of magic can restore life to the dead,_ he thought as now stood before the Golden Retriever-like gremlin that would represent The Escape, _but it can be used to preserve those still among the living. All we need do_ _…_ _is put in the will to act. Will is the driving force behind any act taken. Will is what allows for one to have courage, to feel for those around them, even to try and defy fate. The will to act_ _…_ _is everything necessary to do what is right._

And then, with his hands and chest glowing bright green and blue, he grabbed at The Escape's head, causing it to shriek and explode into pulp before returning in the form of a card. On its cover, The Escape appeared in the form of the dog-like gremlin in a curled-up state, its eyes, which had been the reddest he'd ever seen in any dog around Tomoeda, were closed, indicating that it was sleeping. The spiritual creature was escaping from the real world through sleep, to enter another world unbound by reality. The Escape Card now belonged to a new master.

-x-

Sitting under a cherry blossom tree in the afternoon, Shinji, with his key tucked under his shirt as he rested against the trunk, opened his eyes. He looked around the park he was in, seeing several children running around happily and a few couples on benches or by the lake. Beside him on his left was a book he took to looking at called _The Tiger's Apprentice_ , which became a fave of his, apart from the _Fushigi Yugi_ and _Ceres, Celestial Legend_ books due to the similar themes and goals associated with love and friendship.

"Shinji!" He heard a female voice calling out to him, and he looked around from where he sat and saw Akane, looking out of breath.

"Hey, Akane! Over here!" He called out to her.

She saw him and ran over.

"Thank the Kami I found you!" She panted, which confused him.

"Found me?" He questioned.

"I was coming over to your house when I saw Mr. Reed talking to a woman from that child custody office and another woman that looked like a supermodel. They were talking about you, and it sounded like the women wanted to take you away from Mr. Reed."

That made Shinji grab at his key under his shirt for comfort.

"What did the woman that looked like a supermodel look like?" He asked her; he was pretty sure that he had seen the other woman that was from the office that dealt with Clow's custody and guardianship of him for years since they met.

"About my mother's height, in her late-twenties or early-thirties, dressed in a tight, black dress, a red coat and long, purple hair," Akane described the other woman, which made Shinji tighten his right hand around his key. "You know who she is?"

"I fear that I do," he answered her. "It may be Misato Katsuragi from Tokyo-3."

He then took out his cell phone and went to his list of contacts, pulling up Clow's number and pressing the dial button to get in touch with him at the house. Ever since he introduced Clow to the modern wonders and advantages of Apple technology, Shinji found it a necessary aspect of his apprenticeship to be adaptable and have access to beneficial tech in case he couldn't fall back on sorcery.

"Hello, Reed residence," he heard Clow's voice.

"Hello, it's Shinji," he greeted his guardian.

"Oh, hi, Shinji. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine. I'm at the park right now, but I'm going to come home now. I heard that you…have guests over there."

"Yes, I do. You should meet them."

"Is there anything I should be concerned about?"

"Oh, no, nothing's wrong. Just come right home, Shinji. Do be careful."

"Yes, sir." He then hung up and sighed.

"Shinji?" Akane asked.

"I can't go back there right now," he told her.

"What?"

"The call was being monitored. We were speaking in code. He was warning me away."

"So, now what?"

"I don't know."

"You know, you can crash at my place."

"Much appreciated, but I need my book that I left at home…and I can't get to it."

"Is this book that important?"

"Would any book bearing your name on it be unimportant?"

Akane sighed and helped Shinji up to his feet.

-x-

Clow gave no indication to Ms. Katsuragi or Ms. Okuni from the child custody office that he had warned Shinji not to return to the house. He had foreseen this unscheduled visit from the women and knew that Shinji's father would try anything to ensure that the boy had nobody.

"…So, he's been living with you for over ten years now?" Misato asked him, noticing that the man's living room area seemed unusually massive in such a home.

"That's right, ma'am," he answered her, setting down his cup of tea on the table.

"I've visited this place once every four months, and there has never been any sort of trouble between Shinji and Mr. Reed," Ms. Okuni expressed. "Despite his advanced age, he's always been a fit guardian for the boy."

"Yet, his father made a complaint that there was already someone assigned to be the boy's guardian years ago," Misato informed them.

"My office checked with the initial guardian, and declared he wasn't up to par with taking care of the boy. Who entrusts a little boy to a recovering alcoholic with no experience in looking after children? Plus, the man also had a degree of psychological instability."

"That's a subtle way of saying that the gentleman had a temper," added Clow to the conversation. "I've actually met with the gentleman once after I met Shinji, and he wasn't what I had expected to see in him."

" _What do you want?"_ He recalled the initial guardian greeting him that day.

"My office doesn't really understand why the boy's father is so adamant that his son be removed from Mr. Reed's custody," Ms. Okuni uttered. "He expresses no interest in reclaiming custody, yet insists that the boy be removed."

"I don't understand his reason for this, either," Misato stated, "but he has decreed that his agency would assume responsibility of him."

Clow then picked up a framed photograph of himself with Shinji at lake house when he was seven years old. It was the first time Shinji had ever attempted to catch a fish and the first time he met his elder neighbor Akane when she was eight.

"Shouldn't this all come down to Shinji himself making the choice instead of someone he hasn't had a conversation with in years making the choice for him if he disagrees with it?" He asked Ms. Katsuragi. "I'm sure his father means well, but Shinji has never truly recovered from what was done to him that day we met."

Of course, Clow knew that part of Gendo meaning well for Shinji was nothing more than a falsehood belief. He knew that Gendo cared nothing about his own son and only wanted to use him to achieve his own goals, with absolutely no regard to the well-being of the boy. And then, there was Ms. Katsuragi herself; in the previous vision of the future, he saw how the woman, despite her meaning well for Shinji half the time, behaved more inappropriately around him than she did appropriately around NERV, even demonstrating some irresponsibleness when it came to her relationships with others, especially a man that she had a relationship with, and her own bouts of alcoholism. He knew she had meant well, but the future he saw had contradicted much of everything about her.

"I once explained to Shinji that when you take the cause out of a man, there is no cause for a man," he told her, setting the photo back down on the table. "He actually had a speck of hope that his father wanted to reconcile with him after so many years. But it seemed his father had a different reason for wanting to see him. He didn't tell me much, but whatever happened over it Tokyo-3, it was, apparently, enough to convince him that any hopes of reconciliation was wasted upon his father."

Misato suspected that Shinji hadn't told his guardian about the Eva or the Angel incident, not that he was under any obligation to keep quiet about any of it. Of course, he had just barely come out of the battle alive, and it was all a lot to process. It was enough to drive a person crazy with what he went through.

"Grr," she then heard a growling sound, and looked over by a desk cluttered with books, seeing a strange, cat-like creature near it by the window.

It was about the size of a house cat, with golden or tawny fur and golden eyes.

"Of course, if I knew anything wrong was going to happen, I would've sent Yue with him, just in case," Clow had expressed.

-x-

Since Shinji couldn't go back to Clow's house to get his book, Akane had elected to go get it herself. Her fabricated alibi was a simple one: She had asked to borrow one of Shinji's manga books, which would serve as a cover to get the book bearing his name, and casually walk away before any of these strangers were the wiser. She stood in front of the Reed house, noticing the blue Renault that looked like it had been through an explosion and was duct-taped together.

 _Who drives a car like this and doesn't get it taken to an auto shop?_ She wondered, pressing the doorbell. _I hope Mr. Reed buys my lie._

The door opened and revealed Yue to her.

"Miss Ryu," he uttered, and the girl bowed her head to him. "What brings you here at this time of the day?"

"I meant to come by earlier to borrow a book from Shinji," she explained. "It's one of his _Ceres_ manga books. Uh, the twelfth volume."

Yue stepped aside and pointed to a staircase.

"Master Clow is indisposed at the moment, but he shall be informed of your visit. However brief it will be."

"Two minutes is all I need."

Akane quickly dashed up the stairs and into Shinji's room, finding the book with his name on it on the desk and grabbing it. Then, to keep it hidden, she went to his bookshelf and picked out the twelfth volume of his _Ceres_ manga. When she ran back downstairs, she saw Clow and the purple-haired woman from earlier.

"Miss Ryu," went Clow to her. "Have you heard from Shinji today?"

"Only when I saw him at the park earlier, Reed-Sama," she told him. "I just wanted to borrow one of his manga because he's the only person I know that still reads _Ceres_."

"Should you see him again, please, let him know that he needs to come home soon. It's getting close to his curfew."

"Yes, sir."

Akane then stepped out and casually walked away from the house. She didn't expect for Clow to speak in code to her when he told her to tell Shinji that it was approaching his curfew; she and Shinji hardly had a curfew, so being asked to inform Shinji of his meant something entirely different from what it actually meant. This clearly indicated that something was seriously wrong.

 _And before he ever left to meet that man, the worst thing about him was that he didn't know about Battle Royale_ , she thought, now running towards her house. _Whatever happened in that city had better not have followed him here._

-x-

Unlike his other friends in Tomoeda who either lived in houses or apartment buildings, Akane and her parents lived on a shrine, and Shinji would sometimes visit her there…and rarely ever spent the night over.

Looking out a window at the night sky, Shinji sighed, hoping that Akane was alright; he wouldn't forgive himself if she got hurt over something that involved him, even after he had walked away from the initial involvement.

 _Her parents would likely kill me if their daughter was harmed,_ he thought, shuddering at the fantasy of Akane's mother beating him into an early grave with a broomstick.

The door behind him opened up and quickly closed, and he turned to see Akane, looking out of breath and clutching two of his books to her chest.

"Akane?" He asked.

"You may need to stay away from Reed-Sama's house for a while," she told him, and crashed onto her futon in front of him. "He said it was approaching your curfew before I left."

Shinji sat down in front of her at her desk and sighed.

"That's code for I shouldn't go back until those looking for me leave," he explained to her.

"It's that serious?"

"Yeah."

"Spill."

Shinji explained what he went to Tokyo-3 for…and what had been nearly forced on him, many of which were events that Clow himself had foreseen and informed him. The Geo-Front, the Evangelion, NERV, his father, the Angels, he told her everything Clow had told him.

"Crazy," she said when he finished explaining. "Of all the things that man could've done when you saw him, should've done when he saw you, he chooses to try and force you to throw your life away over something you don't even believe is worth fighting for."

"I'm grateful that Clow told me, but that didn't change the pain I felt while inside the Eva," he told her. "The whole thing could've gone a little better if the people there were a bit more open with the whole reason they needed me there."

"It'd be easier with every family if there was more honesty between the relatives. I guess nobody taught that man how to be honest or he chose not to be honest with others. I get that it's necessary to have some secrets, but these are things that you simply do not keep secret from people."

"At least we grew up with honest people, so that helps."

Akane nodded in agreement, and then then looked beside her on the left of the futon at his book bearing his name.

"It surprises me that you're following in his footsteps," she told him, picking up the book and handing it over to him.

Shinji accepted and expressed, "Not entirely in his footsteps, Akane. I draw my magical potential from an entirely different source. Also, I can't be exactly like him. Nobody can be like someone else. You gotta be yourself, not someone you apprentice under. And…could you imagine how Yue would feel if I ever did become like Clow?"

Akane thought about it, and soon wished she hadn't. Ever since she found out about Yue years ago, the lunar and eastern representation of the town's strongest sorcerer gave her the creeps every now and then. And the only person that balanced the guy out was his animal counterpart, the solar and western representation of Clow known as Cerberus (or Kero, as he was often called by those that saw him in his smaller form).

"He would most likely walk away from you," she told him.

Shinji opened the cover of his book and the cards that carried his magical potential levitated out into the air.

"Hello again," he greeted the cards.

"What are they called?" Akane asked him.

"Well, since I'm apprenticing under Clow, I guess it's only natural for my cards to be named after me, the one responsible for creating them. Though, it was Clow that created their base forms."

"Hmm…somehow, I don't think Shinji Ikari Cards suit your cards any justice."

"If I called them that, they'd just sound like ATM cards. So…Ikari Cards?"

"Heavens, no! Shinji Cards. They sound better like that. I see that you have eleven of them so far. How many do you need to create?"

"That's something I need to work on. So far, my magical energies can sustain these eleven. Maybe another four in the future. Clow wouldn't tell me, but he did say that I would be surprised by the number of cards I would be able to obtain as I get stronger."

"You'll be a great sorcerer one of these days, Shinji."

"What about you, Akane? You can be a great sorceress one of these days."

"Sorceress? A girl who trains to be a shrine maiden, who relies on kyudo and the use of a tanto as her form of offense while using sacred sutras as a magical defense? Somehow, I don't see myself as being a great sorceress, Shinji."

"That's doubt speaking. Don't give power to your doubt."

"You know about my family, Shinji. Many of the women were priestesses. None of us demonstrated an ounce of power that the other families possess. The Ryu family is the only family in Tomoeda with the weakest level of magic that we derive from nature."

"Which make all of you the children of nature. Guardians of the trees…and of the flowers. You can smell of roses…or be as beautiful as violets. Soft as the leaves on a vine…or tough as thorns on a stem."

"Your point being?"

"You underestimate how powerful you can become. You draw strength from nature, Clow draws his from the light and the darkness, some families draw theirs from one element or another, even from the stars and the cosmos…"

"And yours?"

"Mine is derived from balance. So I guess, based on what Clows tells me, my magic relies on my being balanced, whether it's spiritually or emotionally, or being in sync with the world. I don't understand a lot about balance, as it's a concept I never fully understood."

"That's why you're still an apprentice. You still have much to learn. We both still have much to learn…and we will."

"To learn, to get better at magic, and to help heal the planet."

"It's what needs to be done."

"I want to believe in a better tomorrow for everyone, but before that can be made a reality, I want to believe in actually saving the Earth. In the absence of science, maybe sorcery can prevail…even for those that don't believe in magic."

"Some forms of magic, particularly the darkest forms of magic, needs no one to believe. Some gain strength from those that disbelieve."

"I will believe in the magic that can be used to save lives, but never to take them."

"Likewise."

-x-

"It's getting close to midnight now," went Misato to Clow Reed, who continued to sip his cup of tea. "Is he always out late?"

"No, never," Clow told her.

"Does he have anyone he hangs with?"

"I'm sorry. Hangs?"

"I mean, does Shinji spend time with anyone besides you?"

"There are some friends, but I don't pry into that part of his social life. What kind of guardian would I be if I didn't allow him the sanctity of his secrets, his privacy and his independence?"

"A responsible one."

"There's a fine line between being responsible…and being controlling, Ms. Katsuragi. It's a line I simply won't cross because I trust Shinji enough to know that he can always come home…when he chooses to."

"It sounds like you give him too much freedom."

"He needs to be a free spirit, Ms. Katsuragi. He needs to be able to have a life, unbound by the chains of those that would hurt him just for wanting to be more than what others had intended of him to. If you take from someone their free will, their independence, to decide for themselves by themselves, what are they left with?"

Misato sighed, and then Ms. Okuni expressed that there was a motel close by that the purple-haired woman could go to.

"If he comes back tomorrow, Reed-Sama," Ms. Okuni expressed to the man, "please have him know that his father requests his presence."

Clow nodded his head that he would inform Shinji when he returned.

Yue showed the ladies out and then closed the door.

"I assure you, Clow has never had any problems with Shinji since he applied for custody of him," Ms. Okuni informed Misato, "so why the sudden interest in a boy that, more or less, can't relate to his father?"

"I'm sure you're aware of the paramilitary agency known as NERV, right?" Misato asked.

"I make it a point to shy away from any agencies associated with a military theme. I'm not fond of any organization that feels the desire to fight someone, regardless of the reason. Violence only begets more violence. Fighting only causes further discord. War took my son from me."

"My condolences."

-x-

Shinji kept his book close to him as he slept through the rest of the night. Until a strange glow woke him up.

"Huh, what?" He groaned, opening his eyes and seeing a small, glowing sphere looming over his head in Akane's room. "Akane? Are you awake?"

Akane, who had fallen asleep reading Shinji's _Ceres_ book, woke up and saw the small glow.

"What's going on?" She questioned, and the glow floated out through the window.

Suddenly, Shinji felt something about the glow…that attracted him to it, and he got up and opened the window.

"Shinji?" Akane went.

"You don't feel drawn to it, Akane?" He asked her, climbing out into the yard.

"No. What are you doing?"

"I need to know what it is."

Akane sighed and got of bed; whatever was going on, she wanted to know what it was.

"Wait up," she told him, grabbing her slippers.

-x-

"…Judging from earlier, I don't think this Clow Reed wants to give up custody of him," Misato told Ritsuko over the phone in her motel room.

"Commander Ikari won't like this," Ritsuko expressed, concerned with how NERV was going to deal with the Angels without adequate pilots.

"He might've been speaking with Shinji in some form of code when I showed up, warning him of NERV being in the city. Whatever the actual reason, Shinji seems to trust Clow more than he hates his father. I wouldn't be surprised by the boy's decision to renounce anything to do with his father if I meet him again."

"He actually called you a road raider?"

Misato didn't forget that. To have been called a variation of a speed freak by someone she had just met and see that he was less than cooperative because of his hatred towards someone he was related to by blood, it was unexpected. Not to mention that he was unwilling to stay in Tokyo-3 and had no interest in asking about Rei Ayanami, despite seeing that she was injured, simply because he wanted to go back to where he felt was the only place he could call home.

"I don't understand what's so special about this place to someone like Shinji. I mean, it's more trees and parks than buildings."

-x-

The glow was spotted by one of the larger trees on the shrine, and Shinji and Akane stood in front of it as its glow dimmed.

"It's a…a fairy," Akane uttered, seeing the creature that glowed like a firefly fly around the tree.

The fairy was bathed in a golden glow, but its appearance was more silver, with a princess outfit and waist-length hair, wielding a small wand that seemed to be sparkling.

"It's so pretty," said Shinji as he walked closer to the base of the tree.

As the fairy continued to fly around the tree, it showered the ground beneath it with countless, tiny specks of light. Then, it flew down and levitated in front of Shinji, where it then changed its shape, surprising him.

"Whoa," he gasped, as the fairy was replaced by the one thing he didn't expect to see tonight. "Another card."

The card, titled _The Fairy_ , floated in front of him, depicted the fairy sitting on the left side of the card as it held up a long shaft with a lantern at the end of it. Her face bearing a serene look with her eyes closed.

"That was another Shinji Card, Shinji?" Akane asked him, and he showed it to her. "Incredible."

"If I wind up finding these spirits at night, it's gonna throw off my sleeping requirements." He told her.

"Don't you mean OUR sleeping requirements?" She asked him again. "After seeing this card, I want to help you find these cards that need to be found."

Shinji got the feeling that Akane wasn't going to ask him when she would demand him to get involved in something that just happened without much of a warning.

"If you're going to get involved in something that spontaneously occurred, you're going to have to improve your skill set and stop doubting your abilities," he told her.

To be continued…

A/N: The Fairy is a Shinji Card version of the Clow Card The Glow. Also, what do you think of the cards being named after Shinji?


	5. Ice Cold Motive

Creation began on 02-06-16

Creation ended on 04-15-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji, Master of the Cards: Ice Cold Motive

"…Going further down the file's past, your son has had…quite a childhood under Clow Reed's custody, Ikari," went Fuyutsuki, who took to reading more on Shinji's development, both physical and mental. "Excels in his classes, rarely gets into conflicts, if only to resolve them nonviolently…and he even learned how to read and speak Chinese."

But Gendo was still displeased by everything he had discovered earlier about Shinji's living with this stranger he already despised for bringing up the boy with a defiant will.

"Ikari, maybe…it's just fair to say that this is a matter that we needn't concern ourselves with," Fuyutsuki suggested to him; in truth, he just didn't want to cause Shinji any unnecessary pain if he had a happy life. "He's already declared that he hates you and wants nothing to do with the agency, so we shouldn't do something to excite his fury."

"There's nobody else that can pilot the Eva," Gendo finally expressed. "So long as they survive, that is what they'll do."

"Even if it means trying to separate a young man from his guardian?"

-x-

Shinji returned to Clow's home in the afternoon the following day he obtained _The_ _Fairy_ Card, and found himself pondering how he was going to avoid being taken back to Tokyo-3 against his will. He knew Gendo wouldn't try to understand that his life was here in Tomoeda, and he didn't want to trade up for a life in a city where danger was twenty-four/seven. And even though Clow had friends that lived in professions where helping others was a definite, Shinji knew, only because Clow had told him, that NERV was beyond any form of reasoning because of the people behind it, so that meant that, even if anyone brought up a case against them, they'd likely lose. But he couldn't just avoid the people that wanted him simply to pilot the Eva that Clow informed him would be the end of everyone because of what it was really intended for.

 _And it would hinder my apprenticeship,_ he thought, laying in his bed, looking over at his bedside at a photograph of himself with four of his friends at a ballgame from last year. _I'd sooner commit to benevolent sorcery than to devote my time to malevolent science that will not help anyone, even if it's a life I can't share with everyone I meet._

In the photograph was Shinji, Akane and their three friends were holding a large trophy that their team won for their school. It had been a crazy game because both sides, the home team and the visiting team, wanted to win.

 _So long as I continue to deviate from what was shown to me of the future, the end of the world can be kept at bay._

Downstairs, Clow had pierced the veil of the present yet again and gazed into the future for any signs of deviation. What he saw when he focused on Japan was no different from what he had seen years before and confided in Shinji because he had a right to know. In the future, despite the minor changes that were Shinji learning sorcery, he still saw the young man being victimized by his parents and the people they worked for. While the future sorcerer had managed to adjust even further in his apprenticeship, he was unable to stop the ultimate retribution that was upon mankind.

" _I've failed,"_ he heard Shinji say, seeing him unable to use any of his cards to undo the immense devastation that had occurred. _"I couldn't save them. Akane…Tomoeda… I'm sorry, Clow… The future couldn't be changed at all, no matter what we tried."_

The last thing he saw was Shinji dropping his staff in shame and defeat.

On his lap was a book that related to the Dead Sea Scrolls, but not the ones that were made public to the people. No, this book related to the ones that were supposed to pertain to mankind's entire history, past and future. But the one thing Clow chose to accept as the absolute truth that didn't relate to anything the scrolls pertained to, and that was that there was no such thing as a destiny that was written in stone. And another truth he accepted was that the deities themselves, not the people that chose to believe or disbelieve in them, were infallible and unquestionable.

"I'd take it that the future is still dire?" He turned to face Cerberus, who had appeared in his true form as a large, winged lion.

"Yes," he answered him. "The future has yet to deviate away from where it's heading. But so long as Shinji remains my apprentice, he and other apprentice magicians have a hope that can change the future. It is what I have to believe in, something I want to believe in."

-x-

Shinji was certain that Clow had seen enough of the future to know that he had overheard what was said between he and Cerberus. He appreciated that Clow still held onto hope that the future could be changed by them. But so long as he was still at a level that was less than adequate, despite how well he was progressing, he feared that nothing would change.

-x-

Misato had returned to Clow's home, but didn't see Shinji there at all. But she did see him an hour later; he had gone out after overhearing his guardian's conversation with one of his magical creations to be by himself.

"Oh, hello, Shinji," she greeted him, and his expression was vacant, except for his eyes.

His eyes were like that of a predator, judging her.

"Miss Katsuragi," he responded, sounding angry, but calm. "What brings you here to Tomoeda, of all places untouched in Japan?"

"You, actually," she revealed.

"And I would be told before you even arrived. I take it that man…that…Ikari…sent you here to retrieve me like he did when I showed up in Tokyo-2. What is this really about, Ms. Katsuragi? If it involves what I've already confided in with Clow, then I have to say that I think Mr. Ikari has an unnecessary and unjustifiable vendetta against me, simply because I told him that I hate him for leaving me all those years ago."

"Well, your fa… Commander Ikari is insistent that you return to Tokyo-3."

Shinji looked over at Clow, who was sitting in his chair in the living room.

"Why?" He asked her.

"You already know the reason," she explained.

"And if I were to decline? Peacefully?"

"He'd still insist that you come back."

"And…if I were to simply say 'no', but with more force?"

"Very much the same response."

He looked at Clow again, who said nothing, but knew he didn't need to say anything.

"I apologize that you wasted a trip here, but no way, Ms. Katsuragi," he told her. "The reason that man wants me back there is just bad road. It's a death wish waiting to happen, and I don't have a death wish. You say things like 'the fate of the world' or 'if you don't do this, we all die', I'm thinking of a reversed, colder version of _The Last Supper_ by Leonardo da Vinci. Where Jesus is the one who's miserable and the Apostles are being cruel to him. I don't want to be involved in something I don't have any faith in, will never have any faith in, and where someone you're related to is no different from a tyrant."

"He's not gonna give you that choice, Shinji. He's even against Mr. Reed being your guardian."

"The guy that was supposed to act as my guardian was incompetent. Mister Ikari's reason for being against Clow's caring for me is probably only because he doesn't like him. Or trust him. Well, he's very capable and I've never had to feel a reason to run away or anything."

"I don't know why he's against Mr. Reed being your guardian, but he wants it to stop."

That's when Clow chose to spoke up.

"He's not going to look after him," he said to Misato. "He has no interest in his son, so why does he want him?"

Misato saw no way to get around this argument.

Ring-ring! Salvation came in the form of her cell phone going off.

"Katsuragi," she spoke up, and Ritsuko responded.

"I did some further digging around the Third Child's file, and there's something else you should know," the faux-blond informed her. "He had appendicitis when he was nine and took sword classes a year later, so he's particularly good with large blades. He prefers Chinese swords called a jian and a dao over the Japanese katana. There's something else, too. According to his file, he spent some time in China when this Clow Reed guy was visiting other relatives, so he knows how to speak Chinese, too."

"Oh?" She responded, looking at Shinji with a different perspective; before she found out about this, she didn't have any reason to feel afraid of him. "Thanks for the update."

-x-

The night life of Tomoeda seemed quiet tonight. The lights of many of the tall buildings were illuminating the streets and night sky enough to create an artificial day, but there weren't many people out and about. This didn't matter to Shinji right now, as he looked down at the streets below him from the rooftop of one of the apartment buildings; after Misato left, he took his bike and told Clow that he was going to visit his friend Miyuki Moroboshi. In truth, he needed to get away and relieve the stress he felt build up from Ms. Katsuragi's visit, and Miyuki's building helped to ease the stress with a view of the city from a high place.

"Akane told me you'd be in some sort of stitch, Shinji," said Miyuki to him, tightening the string of her longbow as she sat beside an empty oil drum she used for a fire. "That guy that sent for you… He got a vendetta against you or something that could interfere with your apprenticeship under Mr. Clow?"

Turning to face the faux-greenette girl that was his age, he answered, "He's already interfering with it, Miyuki. Remember when I told you and the others about what Clow had told me? About the future?"

"Yeah, that's why he had urged the other families to train and build up their magical energies to keep that from happening and restore the planet," she answered; her family was similar to Akane's, but their magic was derived from blood and fire. "We're all concerned about the future. None of us want to die."

"It's not the dying part that I'm afraid of most of the time," Shinji expressed. "I didn't want to die when I went to Tokyo-3, but I don't want to repeat what happened to me before I left. I piloted a giant behemoth to face another behemoth that was said to be out to destroy mankind. I hated the experience just as much as I hate that man."

"What about hating your involvement in that future…and not yourself?"

"My involvement…only because they involved me before I was old enough to remember anything. I'm old enough to remember the pain now…and smart enough to want nothing to do with their involvement, even if it's what they want. It's not what I want."

"And what do you want? And what is it that you were afraid of back in that city?"

"What I want, I already have here, which is a nice life. What I fear, more than anything, is the possibility of my involvement in our goal to change destiny being for naught and to be unable to help anyone with my abilities."

"You're apprenticing under Clow Reed, I'm sure you'll do fine in your abilities. He's the greatest magician in the city. Maybe the greatest in the world. I'd say that anyone who apprentices under him is guaranteed by the Shikon no Guardians to be able to accomplish the most difficult of feats."

"Yeah, you guys tell me this enough times that I hear it in my dreams every now and then."

When she finished tightening the bowstring, Miyuki stuck her left hand into the fire…and pulled out an arrow from the flames…without a single burn upon her wrist.

"I've finally perfected my condensing technique," she told Shinji, preparing to to fire the bow into the night sky. "People that know of fire's destructive potential fail to see that it's more than a force of destruction. There's passion in its beauty, life in its flames, potential in its industry."

Shinji saw her raise the bow and arrow up and she shot the arrow into the sky.

POP! The arrow, once high enough, exploded into an amazing display of fireworks, illuminating the darkness that the lights on the streets couldn't do.

"Congratulations, Miyuki," Shinji praised her.

-x-

"…I just don't think anyone here that knows Shinji is going to give him up just because Commander Ikari insists upon it, Rits," Misato told her over the phone. "And he doesn't look like someone that knows anything about swords, let alone how to use 'em."

In the solitude of her motel room, the woman felt safe from Shinji after she left Clow Reed's. Truth be told, ever since she was informed about Shinji's swordsmanship skills, she felt intimidated by him further in his refusal to return to Tokyo-3 with her. In her initial encounter of him, she viewed him as a simple boy that would've been informed of NERV's situation by his father. Perhaps a little on the scrawny side, but not like this. Not some teen with a hatred towards his old man and a stubbornness to listen to him or any other superior officers after his first sortie.

"He's unlike what we had initially thought of," went Ristuko in response. "Even the commander was surprised by this, but he still wants the Third Child with NERV, no matter what it takes."

"NERV would probably have to use force, then, because Shinji certainly won't come willingly."

-x-

The solitary walk home made Shinji feel better about earlier today. He felt calmer than he did before, and more at ease.

 _And yet, it seems like I'm being ripped in half at my seams by two opposing forces,_ he thought, unknowingly walking right outside the motel that Misato was staying in. _It's like everyone wants a piece of me, and for different reasons. Of course, I know what the darker reasons are, and I won't permit myself to go down that road, no matter what. And those two…thinking that their goals are the way to go when they're really not. A man that will move Heaven and Earth to the depths of oblivion if it means being with his wife…and a woman whose bright future for all mankind involves exploiting her only son and leaving him forever. I won't forgive them for their choices, and I won't be their tool._

He suddenly stopped and quickly turned around, raising his arms up…and disarming a gun-toting arm and assaulting the neck of his would-be assailant, sending them to the ground.

It was Misato Katsuragi, not expecting Shinji to be quick and precise.

"Miss Katsuragi," he frowned, and looked at her gun in his left hand. "Just what do you think you're doing? Were you attempting first-degree kidnapping?"

"Ahh…aah," she groaned, holding onto the left side of her neck as she got up. "I'm sorry, but I have orders to bring you back to Tokyo-3, even if it's against your will."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really."

"Well, then, I call your bluff."

"If there were an easier way to do this, I would do it, but this is the only option."

"You can always walk away, Ms. Katsuragi. There's no shame in walking away."

"That's not an option, Shinji, that's an excuse to avoid bad situations."

"You can't make me get into the Eva again, not even to face those creatures. You have others that know more than I don't and are willing to. Don't waste your time or your life on an unwilling person."

"It's only because Commander Ikari insists upon you."

"I'm not going to be his pawn. I'd rather burn than bend for him."

If this were a Mexican standoff, it was the strangest one. Shinji had the gun, but he dare not use it. Misato wanted to approach him, but she feared he would use the gun on her. Neither one made an effort to move away or towards their intended target.

"Shinji," Misato uttered, "don't make me do this."

"Then don't force me into a position with people I want nothing to do with," he responded.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice in the matter."

"Everyone has a choice. And I'm saying no."

-x-

Clow Reed sighed at the sight of Shinji's empty room. He didn't need to see into the future to know that his ward wouldn't be coming home tonight, but it did make him worry about him, regardless.

Shinji's book, on his desk, suddenly opened up and the cards under him had levitated into the air in front of him.

"You're concerned about him, too, aren't you?" He spoke to the cards. "Go to him."

The cards glowed and shot out of the window.

A card behind Clow, one of his own, levitated from behind him and was now in front of him. It was _The Sword_ Card, and Clow looked over at Shinji's bed where he kept his swords.

"Of course," he expressed, going over to it and pulling out the sheathed blades from under the bed. "Shinji's going to need your aid."

Ever since he had Shinji trained in the ways of the sword, the boy had excelled in his teachings, though his preferences over which swords did have some people concerned when he got his permit to carry a sword around with him whenever he chose to. Out of the various selection of blades to choose from, he chose the jian as his primary, the dao as his secondary, and the katana as his last resort. He even remembered Shinji using his jian to once cleave an old tree in half.

-x-

Shinji ran as fast as he could away from Misato, surprising her with how he took her gun apart and threw it aside before running. And the woman had a hard time keeping up with him, even in her car; it was like the boy was a track star.

He ran towards the park and managed to lose her car by running over a bridge.

"Take a chill pill, Ms. Katsuragi!" Shinji shouted at her, and ran on.

"Dammit!" Misato cursed. "When I get my hands on him… That little cretin."

Shinji hid in the park cave and caught his breath, unable to think about how fast he had run without any magical aid.

 _Compared to The Dash Card, I'm just a regular runner,_ he thought, _and The Quickening Card is something that allows me to break the sound barrier if I wanted to. But there's nowhere I want to run to, except home._

Suddenly, a light shined upon him, and he looked up, seeing his cards above his head.

"Hey," he greeted them.

One of them came closer to him, and he found it a lot different from the others. Mainly because it wasn't one of his. It was _The Sword_ Card.

"Sword? What are you doing here?" He asked the Clow Card.

The card shined brighter and unleashed two streams of light in front of him. The light on his left assumed the form of a dao…while the light on his right assumed the form of an over-sized jian; the card had brought Shinji his swords from home.

"Thank you very much," he praised the spiritual entity.

-x-

With no other alternatives, Misato had to call in Section Two for assistance in apprehending the Third Child.

"I lost him as he ran over the bridge," she told them, and they went over the bridge.

Suddenly, a large gathering of mist appeared, obscuring everything.

"What's with this fog?" One of the men asked, unable to shine his flashlight through the mist.

It seemed to just come out of nowhere, obscuring everything, even the ground, from perception.

"Aaaurgh!" One of the others screamed.

Slash! The sound of a blade cutting through obstacles of flesh was heard.

"Aaaurgh! Aaah!" Another man screamed, falling to the ground.

Shinji, with his dao, left minor cuts on the men's legs as he used the mist to cover his escape. He held his breath and moved as swiftly as he could, relying on his hearing and feet to deduce where each man was and leave them injured, but not dead. As the gathering of mist by _The Conceal_ Card began to lessen in proportion to the level of magical energy he was able to spend summoning it, Shinji had managed to flee from the park and run back into the city. He stopped near a streetlight post and caught his breath; it was the first time he actually summoned one of his cards to escape a situation he was in and had a specific task for it to do, something Clow had taught him about.

 _I could've used The Drowsy Card on them,_ he thought, _but that would've probably taken more out of me than with The Obscure Card._

He reached into his back pocket on the right side of his pants and pulled out _The Sword_ Card.

"You should return to Clow now," he told the card. "Let him know I'll get back soon."

The card glowed and then disappeared.

Then, he took out another one of his own, _The Quickening_ Card, and held out his key.

"Key of Balance," he began chanting, feeling his magical energy course through the trinket, "from the highest of mountains, from the deepest of oceans, bring forth my staff…and unite all life!"

The key changed and became his staff, which he then grasped into his left.

FLASH! A light shined brightly behind him, and he turned around, seeing Misato's car once again.

"Stay where you are, Shinji!" The woman ordered.

Shinji had no time to consider his options, and had to put his faith in his escape.

"Quickening!" He shouted, raising the head of his staff up, _The Quickening_ Card floating above it, glowing a bluish glow. "Ha!"

Before Misato could react, the boy was no longer there. It was as if he had vanished in the blink of an eye, right before she could even blink!

"What in the name of…" She uttered, but had no clue as to what had happened.

-x-

It lasted only five seconds, as Shinji had run out of magic to sustain the effects of his activated card. He didn't get anywhere near Clow's house, as he was in the city, about fifteen blocks away from where he had been. Down on the ground of the sidewalk, he was out cold, his staff returned to its key form and his swords beside his body. All anyone under the rule of NERV needed to do was find him laying in the streets and pick him up, and that would be that.

And someone did find him, but they weren't associated with NERV.

"And here I was, hoping to meet you tomorrow," a soft, feminine voice expressed, picking the unconscious boy up and carrying him inside a building and closing the door.

-x-

Misato was unsure how to inform Ritsuko or Commander Ikari what she had seen. Something like this just couldn't have been possible, even though she had seen it before her very eyes. How was she to explain that the Third Child had escaped from Section Two and herself…by disappearing in front of her after she was merely three feet in front of him?

To be continued…

A/N: I'm sorry to leave you at a cliffhanger, but I got to save the rest for the next chapter. But you're free to wonder who it was that found Shinji.


	6. Admirers

Creation began on 04-15-16

Creation ended on 04-13-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Shinji, Master of the Cards: Admirers

"…So, you don't need to worry," he heard a voice as he came to, opening his eyes to a ray of sunlight coming into the room from outside a window. "Once he's recovered, I'll return him to you. I am looking forward to meeting you in person after so long. Again, it was good to speak with you. Goodbye now."

Shinji, still slightly exhausted, rose up from futon he was on and realized that he was someplace he had no idea where he was. As he slowly got to his feet, his first instinct was to grab his jian, which, interestingly enough, was right near a chair.

Footsteps came, and a woman stepped into the room. She was very tall, well into her thirties, but had a look that was both beautiful, serene and full of seriousness. Her dark hair and eyes masked a hidden quality that wasn't unknown to Shinji, even though the woman was dressed in a dark, gray kimono.

"Li, Yelan," he gasped, recognizing her as one of Clow's relatives from China, and immediately placed his sword down and knelt in front of her. "My sincerest apologies."

The woman, Yelan, with her expression almost unwavering in its serious demeanor, revealed a small smile and expressed, "Ever so humble, dear Shinji."

Lowering his head further, Shinji felt nothing but nervousness to be in this woman's presence; being from the maternal side of Clow's family and a strong sorceress, she commanded respect from those that knew her, and he was no exception.

"Please, come have breakfast with me," she told him. "You seemed completely drained of energy when I found you collapsed on the sidewalk last night, so I must hear the reason behind your late-night activities. I'm sure you have a reason for such."

Shinji rose back up, put his jian down, and followed Yelan out of the room and into a small kitchen, where the table was set with two plates; it was clear to the boy that she was initially by herself here when she found him.

"So, what happened to you last night?" She asked him, pouring a cup of orange juice.

"I was returning home after seeing one of my friends, Miyuki Moroboshi, when I met a woman that was sent by…the man that left me years ago…to bring me back to him, against my will," he explained to her. "I escaped from her, hid in the park, was found by _The Sword_ Card, which brought my cards and swords with it, escaped from the park as men in suits came looking for me, was nearly caught again, and passed out after using the second of two of my cards. I don't remember anything after that."

Yelan then dug her left hand into her top and pulled out a small deck of tarot-like cards, and they started to float out of her possession, hovering around Shinji.

"Good morning," he greeted his cards.

"Can you show me which two left you weakened last night?" Yelan asked him, and two of his cards floated in front of her. "I can see why. It would seem that _The_ _Quickening_ left you diminished after you used _The_ _Obscure_. At your current level, you're still very weak. But you are improving."

Shinji bowed his head to her again, and helped himself to a rice dumpling.

"Might I assume that my dear, dear relative has made any other progress in this objective ever since our last visit from you two in Hong Kong?" Yelan asked him again.

"Clow Reed has made progress," he answered simply. "People here are amassing their energy in a timely fashion."

"Everyone except for the younger apprentices, I must say," she countered, which he felt was directed more at himself than anyone else. "But…that is to be expected, of course. No one is perfect, only human. We all have our limitations."

He looked up at her, as calm and restrained as when he saw her earlier. How there were times where he felt he needed to speak up and say that he felt she was disappointed in him because Clow made him his apprentice after seeing his potential to harness magic. But he held his tongue in check.

"I never asked him why he decided to teach you over so many others," she continued, "but I think I know why now."

But Shinji made no attempt to respond to her suspicions.

"He really does care about you, doesn't he?" She asked him, which caught him off his guard.

"Yes," he finally spoke up, nodding his head. "Yes, he does."

-x-

"…So you all ended up losing him, even when you had him outnumbered?" Ritsuko asked Misato, who called in the morning of the new day.

"Your Intel on his past was very…unfortunate," Misato retorted. "He was fast, he was armed with swords…and he had a fog on his side."

"Yet, he didn't try to shoot you when he took your gun from you?"

"He could've, but he told me that he didn't want to decide anyone's fate on whether they live or die. Maybe it's part of the reason he doesn't want to pilot the Eva again."

"Oh, don't tell me you're going soft on him just because he let you off easy."

"Not funny. I was embarrassed by a fourteen-year-old that hates his father, knows Chinese, prefers Chinese swords, and seemed to know parlor tricks."

"What do you mean, parlor tricks?"

Misato, however, didn't say anything more on the subject and hung up. Even she had a hard time trying to wrap her head around last night. She knew she saw Shinji with some sort of large rod or staff, but in an instant, he was gone before she could get to him.

 _I should probably see Clow Reed again, but I think I've outlived my welcome,_ she thought, trying to comprehend just what she saw Shinji do last night before he disappeared. _What sort of life does this boy truly lead in this town?_

-x-

 _Huh? What? Who? Who…_ _who is calling out to me again?_ Shinji thought, wondering how it was that, when he was walking with Yelan back to Clow's house, he found himself elsewhere, in a vast, dark place. _Who is calling out to me again?_

The vast, dark place was soon revealed to be a night sky, lit up by lights that surrounded a large tower that echoed Tokyo Tower. Over a dozen buildings in front of it, Shinji saw someone dressed in dark robes with the symbol representing his cards on the back, just above a smaller Taoist symbol, and wielding his staff, surrounded by his cards.

 _That's me!_ He realized, now seeing himself dressed in robes that seemed to echo Clow Reed's, but had green and blue trims and edges to them.

Cling! The robe-wearing Shinji clasped his upper portion of his staff into his left hand, looking at the tower with a type of anger or determination that seemed directed towards someone.

His mouth moved, but whatever words he uttered couldn't be heard by anyone.

 _What's going on here?_ Shinji wondered, unsure of whether this was some sort of dream or a vision, and then saw his robe-wearing self leap off the rooftop of the building he was on and into the night air.

"…Shinji…" A voice called out to him. "Shinji…"

Shinji then found himself standing in front of Clow's house, and Yelan was standing in front of him.

"What happened?" He asked her.

"You slipped into a daydream," she explained; that was the only way she could say it to him, feeling an unusual measure of magical energy emanating from him during the brief moment he was unresponsive.

-x-

Gendo was not impressed by the lack of progress in apprehending the Third Child from Tomoeda. If it was nothing but resistance and persistence from the boy and the people that lived in that city, then he would enforce his objective to have the boy back at NERV.

 _It's not like he even has any value there, anyway,_ he thought, really wanting to understand how anyone like those of Section Two's agents or even Captain Katsuragi could lose the boy when he was by himself in that place.

-x-

"…If his father's obsessed with wanting him back so much, why not just give him up?" Yelan asked Clow, who informed her of what had transpired between Shinji going to visit his father in Tokyo-3 and his subsequent return to Tomoeda.

"Because his father isn't concerned for Shinji at all," he declared to her. "He only wants to exploit him to face these creatures NERV calls Angels until he is broken beyond any measure of hope to mend."

"Hard to believe that what you see in the future involves Shinji. He has yet to reach acceptable levels of magical potential beyond the level of basic magic. Do you still believe in him?"

Because Shinji was up in his room, Clow expressed, "I've believed in Shinji ever since he accidentally opened my book. He has a lot to live for in his life without it being muddled and tarnished by his parents. In the previous visions of the future I saw, before I ever met him, he was set on an unstable path that would only get worse for him. The future is still aimed towards an unforgivable end, and I still see him falling far, shamed by defeat, by failure. He wants to prevent this future from ever happening as much as any of us do, and to do that, he has to get stronger. But he won't get to our level if he's pressured or rushed. He has to improve at his own pace, just as his friends do at their own pace. They can be guided, they can be guarded, but when it comes to teaching our apprentices the art of benevolent sorcery, it must be within their tolerance, not within our sense of expectations."

"Must you go easy on him?" Yelan questioned him.

"I prefer to use positive reinforcement with Shinji. Not too strict or easy for him. He needs to have balance between who he is…and who he aims to be when he fully matures."

Yelan sighed as Yue came by and set a platter of tea and two cups.

"Thank you, Yue," she praised the lunar incarnation of Clow's.

Clow picked up his cup and poured them both a cupful from the teapot.

"If he continues to persist, what will you do if the situation escalates?" Yelan asks him.

"If he persists, he will learn the hard way that what he is after in his agenda isn't worth the hardships others have had to endure," he answers.

"You've already seen his future, haven't you?"

"Only one part of it, and it is wracked with failure to either understand or accept his faults."

-x-

"…This should help you recover from unexpected fatigue spells," Akane told Shinji, serving him an energy drink she added herbs and roots to at her house.

After resting at Clow's, Shinji left out again to go to Akane's; he couldn't be kept away from his friends just because of a stubborn man that he was embarrassed and disgraced to be related to. He accepted the cup and drank the beverage.

"Ugh," he groaned, disliking the taste.

"I know," she informed him, having tasted the drink many times before. "I still can't stomach the taste or do anything yet to improve it."

Shinji held his tongue, though, and drank the rest of the beverage after pinching his nose shut.

"Thank you, Akane," he praised her. "I have a bad feeling that jerk has no clue when to accept that 'no' means 'no', that he's just going to persist until I bend for him."

"If you bend, he wins, Shinji. If you persist, he can't get any closer to his personal goals."

Shinji sighed and tilted his head back, looking up at the kitchen ceiling.

"An apprentice sorcerer against a crazy guy that wants to move Heaven and Earth just to be with his wife," he uttered. "The one thing I don't like about my previous fate is that it still wants me to play my unwanted role…and I don't want to play that role."

"I don't blame you. It's too much to take, even for us teens and tweens."

"Akane, you know I don't have the lingo down on words like 'tweens'."

"You're old school. Speaking incorrectly isn't all that familiar to you."

"Not all that old school. I don't tolerate what my rents want to happen."

-x-

"…If he continues, there's a chance that this…Gendo Ikari will attempt irredeemable actions that result in personal harm," said Yelan to Clow, setting her teacup down on the table. "Do you know what he'll do?"

Clow set his cup down and expressed, "He will try to have the people Shinji cares for harmed and make it look like a series of accidents. Car accidents, home invasions, random attacks. Anything that people will buy into because of the manipulated media."

"And all for a boy that he doesn't even love? That he cares nothing for? What a monster."

Before Clow could say anything to add on to his relative's designation of 'monster' for Gendo, he saw another vision of the future…and saw Shinji in an unexpected place with his friends at night.

"Shinji and his friends will be going to a dance club tonight," he told her.

"Are you not going to stop them?" She asked him.

"They will end up showing their unwanted followers that come for Shinji that they're not to be trifled with or exploited by them."

-x-

"…Yo, y'all hear about what's going on at the Black Mist Dragon Club tonight?" Shinji, Akane and Miyuki were asked by their friend, Haruka Serizawa, an apprentice in the art of exorcism and water manipulation. "There's supposed to be some people selling drugs there."

They were at his house in his room, so they had privacy.

"I thought the police took care of the ecstasy distribution in all the clubs in Tomoeda," Miyuki expressed in the conversation.

"It looks like they missed one club, but I can't prove it unless I catch some," Haruka explained.

"You're going to a club we wouldn't be able to get into because we're underage?" Shinji asked him.

"This club permits underage activity, Shinji," said Taka Aoi, an apprentice in the art of sword-based sorcery and metal manipulation. "My big brother actually saw kids our age go in there a month ago."

"Then the police should be doing something about this," Akane suggested.

"The police won't do anything unless there's actual evidence of illegal drug activity happening there. If we want the police to do anything, someone's going to have to give them a little incentive to be there." Haruka informed them.

"Figures," said Shinji. "They need to be made to take the situation seriously."

Taka then went over to Haruka's desk and slid open a drawer, pulling out a ceremonial tanto dagger that he kept there.

"Care to come with?" He asked them.

-x-

The Black Mist Dragon Club was the place to be this evening! There were people well below the age of thirty years, dressed in various types of clothing and engaging in recreational activities. The lights on the ceiling and walls were of neon reds, blues, greens, pinks and whites, like a rave.

Shinji, Akane, Miyuki, Taka and Haruka, dressed casually and sitting at one of the tables hugging the walls, watched as the older people danced and made merry under the loud music.

"Just be on the lookout for any unusual activity," Taka reminded them.

"With all these people here," went Miyuki, holding her cup of soda to her mouth, "it won't be easy. Everyone's partying and having a good time."

Akane agreed with her, but then noticed a couple of men in black suits and glasses.

"Shinji," she uttered, "we might have to leave soon."

He was looked at her subtle hand gesture and slightly turned his head to the left of the large room, noticing a suit.

"They don't know when to simply give up," he sighed, and the music shifted to a louder tone, causing the partygoers on the dance floor to act louder.

"Well, I guess someone's going to have to tell everyone else about it," went Haruka, getting up and looking at the people. "OH, NO, THE COPS ARE HERE!"

He was louder than the music, and the crowd became silent.

"Hey, this is a no-cop zone!" A man in the background yelled in response to this. "Who let the police in here?! Get rid of them!"

"It's gotta be them men in the black suits!" A woman shouted. "One grabbed my boyfriend!"

"Oh, it's on now! Get them!" Another woman shouted.

Suddenly, the people were getting crazy, grabbing other people that might've been wearing a black suit, all with the aim of throwing them out just for being here tonight.

"This isn't going at all the way I expected it to," Taka confessed to his friends.

"It never does these days," Shinji stated. "Let's get the Hell outta here."

They stayed close to the walls, avoiding the fighting that was happening on the dance floor, noticing five men in suits getting pummeled by the teens.

"Target located," Shinji and Miyuki heard someone say, and saw a suit beside them, who immediately grabbed Shinji. "By order of NERV, Third Child, I order you to stand down and cease all persistence."

"Hey, get your hands off him!" Akane uttered, and grabbed him by his coat, forcing him to release Shinji. "Check with the business manager! They're usually the ones that know where the drugs are! Take a hike!"

She pushed him away, onto another guy, who immediately grabbed him and began punching him.

"Get out, get out, get out!" Shinji told them all, and they quickly snuck out through the back door of the club, into the alleyway that led out onto the streets.

-x-

"…Eight of Section Two's agents were sent to the hospital with fractured bones," revealed Misato to Ritsuko over the phone. "Two of them were stabbed with pens to the abdomen and one was suspected of trying to sell recreational drugs to a thirteen-year-old girl by her seventeen-year-old brother. The Third Child was reported to be there, but he fled the instant things went sour."

"Was there any speculation that he was alone there?" Ritsuko asked as the purple-haired looked out her motel window at the calm night.

"The agent that was suspected of the drugs found in the club reported him with at least four other teens that fled with him."

"Commander Ikari will not be happy to know this."

"Well, his son is just as persistent as he is; the father wants his son to pilot the Eva again, only the son wants nothing to do with him, ever again. I'm starting to think that if things get any worse than before with trying to convince an unwilling teenager to fight creatures hell-bent on wiping out the human race, he might just cross the line and remove himself from the equation just to make sure that he can't be used by his old man."

"There's some doubt that even he would cross that line if pushed too far."

But Misato wasn't so sure, anymore. Each time NERV went after Shinji, he refused to level with them. Did he hate his father that much to jeopardize the fate of the world? Did his father not see any other alternatives for the Eva? NERV already had the First Child and the Second Child was scheduled to come to Japan, but so much time was being put into trying to draft the boy into their service.

"If he does cross that line, it'll be our fault because we pushed him too far," she told Ritsuko and hung up the phone.

-x-

They fled to the park where they crashed onto a small hill, catching their breath.

"Shinji, man," went Taka, "you're like a hot set of wheels that the police are after. Your old man might never quit on you."

"The sooner he does quit on me," Shinji panted, "the better. He can do whatever he wants, but I will not yield to him. I am the mountain to his wind."

"No matter how much the wind howls at the expectancy of obedience," said Akane, "the mountain it howls at…cannot bow to its demand."

"Like the mountains, one must be unyielding. Like the ground, one must be enduring."

"And like the wind, one must be free," Miyuki, Taka and Haruka stated.

Shinji nodded and laid on his back on the grass, looking up at the night sky. Then, he reached around his neck for his key…and sighed. As difficult as things seemed right now because of his father, he loved the life he had here in Tomoeda, and didn't want to abandon it for a future that couldn't be promised to him by his parents. With them, there truly was no future promised to him, only misery and the shame of defeat.

"Hey," he heard Miyuki say, and looked at her and Haruka, who were looking at a patch of ground used for martial arts recreation. "Who's that?"

He looked towards the field and saw a giant of a man that appeared to be a sumo wrestler, but was painted blue all over. Beside him was a little boy of maybe eight years of age that seemed to be painted gray, dressed in a hanbok with an around chest plate and shoulder guards. Atop both their foreheads was an upside-down triangle, but the one on the boy was red while one of the man was yellow.

"I don't know who they are," Akane uttered, realizing that they were looking right at them, "hut they seem to looking at us."

The boy brought his hands together and made a bowing gesture towards them.

The sumo wrestler did the same gesture, indicating that they were respectful to others and might've known each other, but Shinji could see that there seemed to be no indication that they were related.

"Let's go see," he suggested to his friends.

To be continued…

A/N: Sorry I took so long with this chapter's progress. At first, I thought I'd be unable to continue it a little or even reboot it on account of the later stories I've made and the newer ideas. But I'm trying to get back into it. Who among you out there think you can identify the two guests at the end of this chapter and what Yelan Li thinks of Shinji personally?


End file.
